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It Takes 2 Gearys to Sell Trump Towers

LOS ANGELES They aren’t seen on TV every Thursday night, but creatives at independent Geary Interactive have been hard at work for Donald Trump, preparing an extensive online campaign to promote his latest endeavor: the Trump International Hotel and Towers in Las Vegas.

Geary was hired in December to develop online advertising and branding initiatives, including an information and lead-generation Web site, real-estate management programs and DVD sales support tools, said Andreas Roell, president of the San Diego shop.

Roell said his agency is working closely with non-affiliated The Geary Company, the Las Vegas independent simultaneously tapped to handle the campaign’s print, outdoor, direct mail and other traditional ad components. The two shops jointly crafted the project’s creative theme, and share a budget, he said.

Similar in concept to its New York sibling, Vegas’ Trump International will consist of luxury residence-and-vacation condominiums catering to high-end business travelers. In addition to housing, the two-tower property will offer a health spa, two restaurants and other upscale amenities with an “integrated Las Vegas theme,” according to a Trump representative.

Groundbreaking for the first tower is set for May, the rep said. The $600 million project is expected to be complete by the end of 2006.

“Our main objective is to sell the second tower,” Roell explained. Fewer than 200 of the first tower’s 1,282 condos are still available for purchase; an identical 64-story second tower has units ranging from $685,000 to more than $3 million.

Online executions take advantage of the “latest technologies,” Roell said, adding that Trump’s persona is heavily integrated into the material, via what he called the Web site’s “interactive boardroom,” among other initiatives. “We intend to replicate Trump-ian branding, extending his current popularity along with the current real estate,” he said.

Unlike Trump’s New York ad outreach, the Gearys’ campaign “is not going after the U.S. so much as an international market,” Roell said. The majority of work, he said, would “target affluent European and Asian industry executives and real estate investors.”

A “cohesive” media buy will include print such as the Asian Wall Street Journal and Forbes magazine, as well as PDA-branding and “the complete take over of high-end Web sites [by] Donald Trump,” Roell said.

Additionally, Roell said, Vegas’ Trump Hotel and Towers would benefit from “fairly interesting grassroots marketing” right on the Strip: a $3 million temporary sales center designed to be an attraction in itself, with a 10-foot complex replica, fully furnished sample units, audio-visual presentations and interactive computer monitors.

“It’s an exquisite lifestyle,” Roell said of the Trump project. “The trick will be to represent our site the same way.”